All posts tagged ‘Easter Bunny’

I love Christmas. I mean, I love Christmas. Even before Thanksgiving, I’m getting into the spirit, singing Christmas carols, looking forward to decorating the house, preparing gifts, baking tasty treats. To me, Christmas is all about festivity, family, friends, great food, cookies, presents and cold weather. I’m definitely not a Scrooge. No “Bah, Humbug” from me. I tell you this to give you context for what I’m about to write.

I don’t believe in lying to my kids about Santa. Early on, my husband and I had a discussion about Santa and what we’d tell our kids. It’s a rare occasion when I feel that lying to your kids is okay, and this, for me, didn’t qualify. Sure, you could continue the ruse as long as possible, seeing the joy in their face, them experiencing the “magic” of Christmas, but inevitably they would find out the truth and find out that you lied to them. Then they would hate you for killing Santa. So for me it is all about trust and honesty.

While I feel very strongly about this, apparently my husband felt more strongly in the other direction (or he did, years ago), feeling that Santa Claus was part of our American mythology. So he told our daughter that there was a Santa Claus. I would have nothing to do with it. I informed him that he’d have to deal with any fallout once she did figure it out. And figure it out she did. Quickly. A couple of years later, our incredibly logical child came to a realization while we were in the car driving somewhere. We were talking about the holidays, and our daughter put two and two together and realized that we were Santa. There was no actual man with a red suit and a white beard. There was much crying. Much crying. Then there was more crying. Naturally, this happened in such a way as to prevent my husband from being able to deal with the consequences, since he was driving. My daughter took after me in the figuring-it-out-early camp. I remember figuring it out when I was a kid, too. I was probably about 6 or 7, and logically worked it out, then extrapolated to the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy. I ruined it all for my older sister.

Since our daughter figured out the truth before our son was old enough to really participate in the illusion, he never really thought Santa was real. Now, because everyone in the family knows the truth, we all pretend together. To me, this is much more fun than having to sneak around behind their backs. The kids and I talk about Santa like he’s real, but all the while knowing that he isn’t. They fully participate in the Christmas season with me.

To me, this doesn’t take anything away from celebrating the Christmas season. Being honest with my kids means much more to me, and to them, than any fantasy.

[This article was originally published on GeekDad on Christmas Day, 2010.]

I love Christmas. I mean, I love Christmas. Even before Thanksgiving, I’m getting into the spirit, singing Christmas carols, looking forward to decorating the house, preparing gifts, baking tasty treats. To me, Christmas is all about festivity, family, friends, great food, cookies, presents and cold weather. I’m definitely not a Scrooge. No “Bah, Humbug” from me. I tell you this to give you context for what I’m about to write.

I don’t believe in lying to my kids about Santa. Early on, my husband and I had a discussion about Santa and what we’d tell our kids. It’s a rare occasion when I feel that lying to your kids is okay, and this, for me, didn’t qualify. Sure, you could continue the ruse as long as possible, seeing the joy in their face, them experiencing the “magic” of Christmas, but inevitably they would find out the truth and find out that you lied to them. Then they would hate you for killing Santa. So for me it is all about trust and honesty.

While I feel very strongly about this, apparently my husband felt more strongly in the other direction (or he did, years ago), feeling that Santa Claus was part of our American mythology. So he told our daughter that there was a Santa Claus. I would have nothing to do with it. I informed him that he’d have to deal with any fallout once she did figure it out. And figure it out she did. Quickly. A couple of years later, our incredibly logical child came to a realization while we were in the car driving somewhere. We were talking about the holidays, and our daughter put two and two together and realized that we were Santa. There was no actual man with a red suit and a white beard. There was much crying. Much crying. Then there was more crying. Naturally, this happened in such a way as to prevent my husband from being able to deal with the consequences, since he was driving. My daughter took after me in the figuring-it-out-early camp. I remember figuring it out when I was a kid, too. I was probably about 6 or 7, and logically worked it out, then extrapolated to the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy. I ruined it all for my older sister.

Since our daughter figured out the truth before our son was old enough to really participate in the illusion, he never really thought Santa was real. Now, because everyone in the family knows the truth, we all pretend together. To me, this is much more fun than having to sneak around behind their backs. The kids and I talk about Santa like he’s real, but all the while knowing that he isn’t. They fully participate in the Christmas season with me.

To me, this doesn’t take anything away from celebrating the Christmas season. Being honest with my kids means much more to me, and to them, than any fantasy.

[This article was originally published on GeekDad on Christmas Day, 2010.]

“What the heck is it with Easter? I mean bunnies and eggs? What’s one got to do with the other?” Easter perplexes the heck out of my daughter. She loves the candy and the decorating of eggs of course, but she’s long been incredulous at the array of seemingly unconnected symbolism that is so associated with this spring holiday.

This year we decided to buckle down and do a little research. What we found was pretty interesting. Of course there is the usual history of Easter Egg decorating, the finest examples of course being the Pysanky designs of Ukrainian tradition. Who doesn’t love a good Pysanky egg? Wikipedia will tell you all about the pagan origins of Easter, and the tradition of eggs and bunnies as penultimate symbols of fertility. Still we’d found this information in the past. What we really wanted was a good solid link between bunnies and eggs.

Tesana is a big girl — think Lauren Zizes from Glee, but without the self-confidence. She just doesn’t fit in with her high school classmates and seems destined to be an outsider. Her two coping methods seem to be escaping into her daydreams or getting violent. But then she finds a little bunny that lays colorful eggs and, convinced that she’s found the Easter Bunny, sets out to get it back home.

A Home for Mr. Easter by Brooke Allen was published last year, but I didn’t read it until recently—just in time for Easter! Now, this is definitely not HOP— it’s a book for teens and adults, not little kids. As Tesana attempts to track down Mr. Easter’s home, she encounters a host of unsavory characters: Uri (of Uri’s Discount Pets); a bunch of scientists at a cosmetics factory and the mob of protesters picketing it; Masamilliano, Magician Extraordinaire! Meanwhile, Tesana’s mom and the local cops are out looking for her missing child.

It’s a bizarre, trippy comic book. For much of the book, you really don’t know how much of this is all in Tesana’s head. After all, one of the first scenes you’re treated to is a rainbow-farting unicorn that whisks her away to school so she doesn’t have to ride the bus … but that turns out to be simply a daydream. When Mr. Easter starts laying eggs and talking to Tesana, you really have no idea what’s real and what’s entirely in her head, which makes for some interesting tension.

I won’t spoil the ending for you, but if you’re looking for a funny adventure with some off-kilter humor, check out A Home for Mr. Easter. I can pretty much guarantee that it’s not like anything else you’ve read yet. Check out a short preview on NBM Publishing’s website, and then pick up the book from NBM or Amazon.

Almost certainly, yes! Hopis a movie that features bunnies, chicks and an enormous Wonka-esque CGI candy factory — could it be any more clearly aimed at kids? It’s got jokes aplenty that kids will find hysterical, and not quite all of them are in the trailers. The actors do a great job interacting with the computer-animated characters, and the voice actors are terrific, making the whole thing very believable — it’s not hard at all to forget that E.B., the main bunny character, isn’t real.

2. Will I like it?

If you’re at all like me, you’ll enjoy it, though you won’t love it. I really didn’t expect to like it — I can’t stand the saccharine sweetness of so many kids’ holiday movies, but Hop had a refreshing (slight) edginess to it that made it more palatable. It has plenty of jokes that no kid is going to get, but that will make the adults they’re with laugh. From a sly (but totally benign) reference to a well-known Los Angeles residence to the appearance (and hysterical self-parody) of a celebrity most noted for TV shows in the ’80s and ’90s, it may provide you with a few things slightly tough to explain to your kids, but they’re amusing enough you won’t care.

3. It’s rated PG — anything I should be concerned about for my little kids?

Nah. There are a few tense moments, but nothing worse than you’ll find in any Disney film. I can understand being concerned upon hearing that Russell Brand does E.B.’s voice or that Chelsea Handler has a small part, but they both keep it clean. The PG rating is probably due to a few rude jokes, one of which (E.B. pooping jellybeans) is in the commercials and thus not going to surprise anyone.

4. When’s the best time for a bathroom break?

Hop lasts just over 90 minutes so, movie theater drink sizes being what they are these days, it’s entirely possible someone in your party will need to use the facilities partway through. The plot moves along fairly quickly, so there are no scenes that are completely extraneous, but I suggest going when Fred (the main human character, played by James Marsden) goes on a job interview. There’s plenty of funny stuff that happens there, but it does less to advance the plot than a lot of scenes around it, and its outcome is fairly predictable.

5. Do I need to sit through the end credits for a bonus scene?

There is a very short scene after the end credits that’s a callback to a joke earlier in the movie. It’s worth staying for if you can.

6. So, bottom-line it: What do you think of it?

It’s a fun film, though not much more than that. It’s not in danger of winning any Oscars for acting, screenwriting or directing, but would you really expect a holiday comedy film to be otherwise? It’s nice to see a funny, utterly areligious take on the Easter Bunny, considering that Santa films have been done and overdone. It could have used a bit more heart, a bit less obvious and abrupt an ending, and better lines for the amazing Hugh Laurie, who voices E.B.’s father (the current Easter Bunny) and Hank Azaria, who voices the amiable but dimwitted chick Phil and the villainous chick Carlos. Go to it expecting 90 minutes of escapism and I think you’ll enjoy it; go to it expecting real substance and you’ll be disappointed.

7. What toys should I expect my kids to ask for after they see it?

Well, I brought home a bunch of toys from the press junket I went on for the film, and my kids (a boy, 10 and a girl, 8) are most fond of the stuffed E.B.s with articulated ears. My daughter likes the pink beret, and I suspect will like it even more after she sees the film — the “pink berets” are a trio of female bunny ninjas/commandos who pursue E.B. and are pretty amusing. There are available, of course, plastic E.B.s that poop jellybeans. If you can accept that, the jellybeans aren’t bad.

It’s sort of amazing when you think about it, but there really has never been a mainstream kids’ movie about the Easter Bunny. When you consider how many movies there have been featuring Santa Claus, and the number of years Cadbury has been making commercials starring clucking rabbits, it really does make you wonder why this particular sector of the Holiday Movie genre has remained unexplored. Until now, of course.

I will freely admit that I didn’t have high hopes for Hop when I was invited to go on a press junket for the film. I mean, my favorite holiday film is The Nightmare Before Christmas, which has a slightly… different tone from most other holiday films. And Easter isn’t my holiday, though my wife and kids celebrate it — albeit not religiously. Despite Hop‘s casting of Russell Brand as the voice of the main bunny character, I was afraid the film would be cloyingly sweet, too preachy about its message, or both.

I needn’t have worried. I’ll provide more detailin a “10 Things Parents Should Know About Hop” post tomorrow to coincide with the movie’s premiere, but for now suffice it to say that Hop is funnier, better-acted and more flat-out charming than it has any right to be. But is it geeky?

And the answer to that is: Not particularly. I mean, it’s 2011, and movies that seamlessly integrate CGI characters and settings with real settings and actors are no longer cutting-edge technology. But the film does star James Marsden, aka Cyclops/Scott Summers in the X-Men films, so there is at least that connection. And, as I found out at the roundtable discussion with him at the junket, Brand has a somewhat geeky side to him that you might not expect.

I love Christmas. I mean, I love Christmas. Even before Thanksgiving, I’m getting into the spirit, singing Christmas carols, looking forward to decorating the house, preparing gifts, baking tasty treats. To me, Christmas is all about festivity, family, friends, great food, cookies, presents and cold weather. I’m definitely not a Scrooge. No “Bah, Humbug” from me. I tell you this to give you context for what I’m about to write.

I don’t believe in lying to my kids about Santa. Early on, my husband and I had a discussion about Santa and what we’d tell our kids. It’s a rare occasion when I feel that lying to your kids is okay, and this, for me, didn’t qualify. Sure, you could continue the ruse as long as possible, seeing the joy in their face, them experiencing the “magic” of Christmas, but inevitably they would find out the truth and find out that you lied to them. Then they would hate you for killing Santa. So for me it is all about trust and honesty.

While I feel very strongly about this, apparently my husband felt more strongly in the other direction (or he did, years ago), feeling that Santa Claus was part of our American mythology. So he told our daughter that there was a Santa Claus. I would have nothing to do with it. I informed him that he’d have to deal with any fallout once she did figure it out. And figure it out she did. Quickly. A couple of years later, our incredibly logical child came to a realization while we were in the car driving somewhere. We were talking about the holidays, and our daughter put two and two together and realized that we were Santa. There was no actual man with a red suit and a white beard. There was much crying. Much crying. Then there was more crying. Naturally, this happened in such a way as to prevent my husband from being able to deal with the consequences, since he was driving. My daughter took after me in the figuring-it-out-early camp. I remember figuring it out when I was a kid, too. I was probably about 6 or 7, and logically worked it out, then extrapolated to the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy. I ruined it all for my older sister.

Since our daughter figured out the truth before our son was old enough to really participate in the illusion, he never really thought Santa was real. Now, because everyone in the family knows the truth, we all pretend together. To me, this is much more fun than having to sneak around behind their backs. The kids and I talk about Santa like he’s real, but all the while knowing that he isn’t. They fully participate in the Christmas season with me.

To me, this doesn’t take anything away from celebrating the Christmas season. Being honest with my kids means much more to me, and to them, than any fantasy.

Spring is here, the grass is turning green, lilies are emerging from the once frozen ground and a visit from the Easter Bunny is just around the corner. And who doesn’t love Easter eggs? There are chocolate ones, caramel-filled delights and – of course – the Cadbury Creme-filled roe of rapture. But, at GeekDad, the type of Easter eggs we like best are the digital ones, those cloaked messages and jokes buried away (or sometimes hidden in plain sight) in our favorite movies, games and computational search engines.

This week’s quiz will put your Easter egg knowledge and Google-Fu to the test. Simply identify the TV show, movie, book, game, Web site or other source where each Easter egg can be found, along with a short description of why each qualifies as an Easter egg. E-mail your solution by Friday night at 10 pm EST and one lucky winner will be chosen to receive a $50 gift certificate from folks at ThinkGeek.

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ie sucks

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Toasty!

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2112

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